Conservation project to save threatened flowers of the Cairngorms
The four-year scheme aims to enlist volunteers to help protect and monitor rare plants and habitats.
Threatened plants in pinewoods and mountain-tops and remnants of wildflower meadows in the Cairngorms are set to get a boost with a new four-year conservation project.
It is hoped people’s love of the Cairngorms can be harnessed to enlist volunteers to work alongside conservationists to protect plants and habitat and monitor the impact of climate change on species.
Experts warn the unique wildflowers of the UK’s largest national park, in pinewoods, grassland and mountain-top habitats are threatened by habitat loss and climate change.
It will focus on rare Caledonian pinewood species such as the one-flowered wintergreen and the twinflower, whose remaining isolated populations are on the verge of extinction because of habitat loss and unsuccessful interbreeding.
The species will be carefully moved by conservationists and volunteers to habitat that is more viable, Plantlife said.
There are plans to establish five new populations of twinflower and introduced one-flowered wintergreen to two new sites.
Monitoring the species will help scientists understand the pressure on the habitat from climate change and pollution.
And there will also be work to restore wildflower rich grasslands, upland hay meadows, and unimproved grasslands that are rich in rare waxcap fungi.
The plans include restoring five wildflower meadows and working alongside landowners to restore and protect waxcap grasslands.
Plantlife’s Gwenda Diack, project manager, said: “We want people to reconnect with the rich wild plant heritage of this truly special part of Scotland, whether through the rekindling of wild plant folklore, celebrating current uses or taking action to help save rare plants.
“The Rare Plants and Wild Connections project will harness the power of citizen science and our love for the Cairngorms to restore and protect some of the rare plants and fungi of our pinewoods, meadows and mountains.”
“We look forward to supporting this project to build on that connection and encourage more people to get hands on to help restore and protect these internationally important habitats and their precious plants.”
